Pokémon Bank and Hacked Pokémon

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pokejungle’s note: We do NOT condone hacking Pokémon, views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer. Any links to hacking sites or software will be removed in the comments. This article is for discussion about the topic only and is not meant in any way to encourage activities which are contrary to the way GameFreak has designed.

Many individuals speculated upon the initial release of Pokémon Bank was that the reason why it was delayed for so long was that it A.) had a ridiculous server load and B.) Didn’t come close to stopping hacked ‘mons. Well, Game Freak finally released it in the west with some impressive results; the servers run (relatively) smooth and there are plenty of checks to block hacked Pokémon from entering. Does it work? Yeah, and it does a decent job. Is it perfect? Far from it.

Why I Hack

I’m a Pokemon hacker. Yes, I admit it. I’ve been hacking ‘mons since the days of Ruby and Sapphire (I only played the rom and never owned a GBA). I’ve never had events readily available until recently, so Pokémon like Deoxys and Darkrai were never in my PC box. Having all three starters was a far stretch of a possibility, as was filling the Pokédex by the means of trading. I used Action Replays and (only recently) programs like Pokégen to experiment with teams and play with some of the more elusive Pokémon in-game. Never have I hacked abilities, moves, and IVs to create some impossible Pokémon to abuse online. I just do it for the fun solo gaming experience and to test out some new teams combinations without the time constraint that often plagues EV training and move breeding.

When Pokémon Bank announced that they would block hacked Pokémon from their servers, I was a bit distressed. How will I manage to obtain the starters without spending time replaying old games and stalking the trade boards? What about all of the cool events that I’ve missed in the past like Shaymin and Keldeo? I immediately started searching online just to see how well this hack blocking worked. If there’s a will, there’s a way, right?

The Hacking Check

It turns out that there is a hacking check in Transporter and in Bank. If you try to transfer a hacked Pokémon like, say, a Shiny Chimchar with perfect nature and maxed out IVs, it will probably be flagged because the chances of obtaining one of that quality are outstandingly low (obviously hacked abilities and moves sets that the original Pokémon can’t learn will be flagged as well). However, if you decide to be modest with the IVs, maybe forego the shiny coloring and tweak the the location / date met, it’ll probably bypass the check. It’s a bit tricky, especially with event Pokémon, but there are sites out there like Pokédit and programs such as Pokégen that have special event Pokémon that are specifically built to bypass any anti-hacking programs. And, as far as I know, these Pokémon can be used online in battles. I haven’t tested these boundaries fully, but I have used a hacked event Meloetta in an online battle to see if it would work, and it passed through easily.

Exceptions

The chances of getting a shiny with perfect stats is low, but not impossible, right? This is a problem that the few lucky trainers out there have been experiencing. I’ve been carousing a few message boards for information and theories of how the hack check works and have found a number of individuals who actually did receive a perfect shiny starter. They did legitimately catch that Shiny Modest Kyogre and it did happen to have amazing IVs. Well, Pokémon Bank flagged their precious teammates as hacked when they were apparently legitimate. I don’t know how honest those few people are, but I recall reading more than one incident of legit Pokémon not being able to be transferring. I suppose that Gamefreak needed to add a no-exception policy as to rule out the numerous hacks out there that ruin the delicate balance of the game. Unfortunately, this does affect those very small few who were actually lucky enough to obtain these excellent Pokémon legitimately. I guess Gamefreak was willing to make this sacrifice. From the looks of it, the fans haven’t been too horribly upset as it seems like a lot of them were only transferring these Pokémon for the sake of transferring them and don’t actually use them in battle, but I’m sure it’s pissed off its share of players.

So, to put it simply, Gamefreak makes a solid attempt to limit the amount of hacking that has overrun the late Pokémon games, but in the end it still exists. It will probably always exist – with new technology comes new loopholes for people to discover and exploit. Hopefully these loopholes will not affect the metagame too much, but I do appreciate the additional accessibility that these sites and services provide!

What do you think about hacking? For it? Against it? Leave your (constructive) feedback below with your personal opinion.

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2,369 thoughts on “Pokémon Bank and Hacked Pokémon”

          • Just asking because I’m not really a Hoenn fan but for how many years have you been hoping that they would remake RSE?

          • i dont really WANT one, id enjoy it. I got with the flow of gamefreak ideas. Hoenn is just my first region

          • Just saying but the most likely reason they remade both Gen 1 and Gen 2 is because people couldn’t transfer their precious Pokemon to the newest game and wouldn’t you feel betrayed if you had to suddenly had to start from scratch not matter what you had what if you were one of the lucky people who found a shiny Pokemon is Gold, Silver or Crystal? So Nintendo remade Gen 1 a year later after RS and probably remade Johto so much later on because it would keep fans entertained until the next game. Looking at Pokemon, Pokemon has only remade two generations and had good reason to.

          • The only reasons i can think of for Gen 3 to be remade are
            Fan Demand
            Those cutscenes that were very limited due to the GBA’s capabilities
            Or to introduce new mega evolutions/split evos/new pokemon.

          • Just pointing out another thing. I’m not a fan nor a hater of Hoenn but after not being able to transfer their Pokemon, people sort of hated mainly for that point. Sure Hoenn introduced Double battles, abilities and so much else but the fact is that the same additions could have been released in a different region. People also focus on how much water there is. it was a nice change in scenery but you essentially had to have a map out or keep looking at one to know where you were going most of the time and it did eventually got quite annoying. The thing I wish to point out here is that even though there can be people who like a region, there people who dislike that region for certain reasons.

          • I loved the Pokemon of Hoenn, the music and the story. All the water travel was kind of annoying, i agree. They might remake Hoenn because people don’t want to sit down transfer those to dpp, transfer those to bwb2w2 and then to X or Y.

          • I’d imagine they would remake the water routes with islands here and there on them as rest-stop like things and so that you don’t spend half of the game battling water types in the wild.

          • The islands could have other typed Pokémon. But if they do that, to keep with the balance theme of Hoenn, they would have to have lakes in the middle of the land routes.

          • Ever since BW2 when they finally released the Regis as legendary Pokemon after such a long time, Hoenn lost any unique Pokemon it once had. Latias and Latios in HGSS and BW2, Rayquaza, Kyogre and Groudon and almost every game still at least has some exclusive Pokemon like Johto still has Ho-oh and Lugia, DPPt has Dialga, Palkia and Giratina (Not counting events, only legendary in-game Pokemon). All of Unova’s and Kalos’ legendary Pokemon are still only exclusive to their games but only because they’re still quite new.

  2. Hello Everyone we got someone new day this is slip
    ” Hi im Slip and m addiced to hoenn”
    Slip we are here to cope our promblems is this a the first step to the bettter
    “everyone claps”
    So now Cindy hows ur progress?

    Reply

  3. Guys, today (10th) is my 18th birthday!!! I guess as a present, GF gave me Pokemon Bank and when I was tranferring yesterday my Mew went through! (I didn’t know if the Mew was legit or not as I got it from a friend)

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  5. I have hacked to get infinite master balls, just to catch pokemon on the spot, im a lazy shit :p That’s it, not into the whole hacking for ultimate stats on pokemon etc 🙂

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  6. With Pokemon Bank existing, i’m pretty sure Gen 4 will be the final remakes. Anything from BW to B2W2 can be transferred to X and Y and can exist in Pokemon Bank. The next games will be compatible with Bank and so Anything from Gen 5 you do not need to worry about. Gen 3 and Gen 4 take some more time to transfer. Could you imagine sitting and transferring from Gen 3 to Gen 7?

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  7. “They did legitimately catch that Shiny Modest Kyogre and it did happen to have amazing IVs. Well, Pokémon Bank flagged their precious teammates as hacked when they were apparently legitimate. I don’t know how honest those few people are, but I recall reading more than one incident of legit Pokémon not being able to be transferring.”

    This confuses me, if they were true, my Shiny Timid Lugia (I’ll recheck IVs in a moment) should not have passed the legitimacy test despite being legit. I think it’s safe to say those sob stories are bogus, at least to me.

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    • This is simply one story and one Pokémon that were transferred over thousands. Obviously I did not imply it being 100% – it is simply one instance of a random flag. The system is inconsistent with its “rules”, assuming it has any.

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    • I had a braviary that was legit not pass though the check. It didn’t even have good stats, and there was nothing special about it. I have no idea why it wouldn’t transfer, but it can happen.

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  11. To be frank, I would think that Game Freak sees only two problems with hacked legal Pokemon being transferred: they require minimal effort to be made, and shiny Pokemon are illegitimately numerous. Game Freak DOES indeed encourage players to use Pokemon with 5 or 6 perfect IVs, as evidenced by the Destiny Knot, the Friend Safari, and Pokemon that cannot breed always having at least three max IVs. Unlike Generation V where IV breeding was extremely difficult and likely not intended, X and Y have a much higher number of battlers who use perfect-IV Pokemon, and thus there are much fewer people who are at an unfair advantage. So, the only difference between generated legal Pokemon and legitimate legal Pokemon is the amount of work put into each. And for the record, I’ve tested the transfer of hacked Pokemon, and nothing legal was blocked for me so far.

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  12. I used to be 100% against hacking, but I actually just genned some Pokemon last night for the first time. I know it seems cheap and everything, but I can completely see why people do it. It’s not that hard at all. I easily hacked for all the Legendary Pokemon. I don’t think it’s too bad considering my only chance of completing the dex in X/Y is to hack or sit there and beg people for legendaries. Of course it’s not fair to just hack shiny flawless Pokemon though, as lots of people put in tons of time to get them the hard way. Anyways, here’s all that i hacked last night (about 50 total), and it only took me a little over an hour. Transferring them all later.

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  14. When I was younger, I played these games constantly up until 4th Gen. That was around the time that I “grew” out of Pokemon for a bit in terms of the physical games. For 4th and 5th Gen, I really only played the ROMs for them. I got rid of my GBA SP and DS, along with those games (Pokemon included). When I got back into it and went out and bought a DSi and 3DS and got the 4th and 5th Gen games, I was ecstatic. Now, you’re probably wondering why the hell any of this matters.

    The point is that when I got back into the games, I didn’t have any of my old Pokes to bring over, so I experimented with PokeGen and Pokedit. While I was lucky enough to have bought a Platinum off eBay that came with someone’s old save file they didn’t delete with most of the legendaries from the previous gens, I didn’t have them all. Using Pokedit, I downloaded the event Pokemon that have been offered in the USA 100% the exact way they were offered in the events. I’ve also used it to get some old Pokemon that I wasn’t able to attain that I just thought were cool and such.

    I personally don’t have an issue with PokeGen or Pokedit if it’s just to have legendaries you have missed out on, other event Pokemon, or just to get that one Pokemon that you could never get. However, I think it’s dumb if you do produce that 6 IV Pokemon that you’re too lazy to spend a couple hours breeding to get.

    Game Freak has made it unbelievably easy to get competitive Pokemon this Gen, so only lazy, uncommitted people are doing it. Competitive battling is about having fun and growing bonds with the team you spent hours and days creating, not a team that you took 20 minutes making with max everything and a godly move set.

    Thus, my rant ends.

    TL;DR: I’ve used hacking before to get certain Pokemon, but don’t condone it for competitive use because you’re extremely lazy and don’t really care about what Pokemon is based on: social interaction and fun.

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  15. And guess for the Topic at hand:
    Personally I don’t like Hacked Pokemon for a number of reasons
    1. Totally unfair if your planning to use it competitively, Cheating at its worst
    2. Hacking endanger your game’s life, if you hack your game and it breaks there’s no undoing it
    3. I know of the luxuries of having everything handed to you with the push of a button, But it ruins the sanctity and purpose to work hard to achieve greatness and if you cannot grasp that with any wisdom then get out of my sight

    And the most critical!
    4. It’s totally selfish and stupid, If you think your a great battler just because your “Pokemon” wins battles deep down it’s a damn bloody lie, I and a lot of good people work tirelessly to breed and raise Pokemon by hand while others lazily just take a mondo-Shortcut if we’re doing it the right way others should have to comply as well.

    I’ll admit I have owned an Action Replay or two in the Past but they’re decommissioned for good due to me almost losing everything in multiple occasions alone

    “I’m The EarthenWarrior and I disapprove of Hacking”

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  16. Are you against hacking? Yes i am, unless it’s for an GAMESTOP event. As some of you may know, i don’t live in north america so i can’t get those awesome shiny pokemon, so i see no problem in hacking a pokemon that was given in one of those events.

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  17. Speaking of not hacking, did you guys hear that I found a shiny Piloswine last night? Naughty and Oblivious! If you did…it may seem like I’m bragging, but I’m not! I promise.

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  20. Moral of the story is, to stay safe from hacks – make sure you’re only trading for Pokemon with the Pentagon in the summary. The pentagon shape means its a kalosian native, but its also a good indicator for a legit Pokemon because all the hacks come from gen 5 and no pokes from gen 5 will have the pentagon.

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    • I guess Max is a Hack anyway you look at it….
      But regardless I’m still counting it as a win since I rarely get anything Good from WT
      and even though it’s a 6IVer I already got a Japanese 6IV Ditto from Gangplank Style a while back

      Reply

      • ahh you already had one? I was gonna say.. even though its a hack you can still use it for breeding. I just got a shiny impostor ditto lvl 30 from friend safari but it only has 2IV’s… I use my regular 6IV Ditto that I RNG’d from gen 5 as my breeder.

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    • Well Gen 6 doesn’t have move tutor yet. Only thing that makes stuff from 5th Gen appealing. Granted, I’ve had to keep all the suspected hacks and non-Kalos pogeys on my Y game in case (in the very smaaaaallll chance) I have to attend a VGC with my X.

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      • true – but tutor moves, or pokes without the pentagon can’t enter VGC so gen 5 shinies are practically worthless IMO unless their legends…

        so when XY gets its expansion, or sequel, whatever they plan to do with it – they will surely release move tutors again making gen 5 even more devalued.

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  21. I dont care if you hack , as long as the hacks create a legit poke

    Its the legendary spammers, the Roar of Time Wurmples and the Drizzle Starmies that piss me off…

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  22. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
    I hate hacked Pokémon. They are extremely annoying to battle. Before Bank, I used to be exited when I fought trainers that weren’t from Japan because some of them had hacked. But now, with Bank, everyone has a hacked Pokemon and it is almost impossible for me to have a fair battle on the battle spot. The days that I do find legit battlers are the days I cherish.
    Note – The reason I know they hack is because they have tend to have a full team of shinies that seem to take at least no damage from my Mega Pokemon that have perfect IVs in Special attack and Attack. My Pokemon are all Kalos native and were bred in Kalos because I did not own the previous gen games.

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    • I battle with whole teams of shinies and I dare someone to say I hacked my 4 boxes of pentagon shinies.

      The reason their pokes aren’t taking the damage you predict is because every Pokemon has different defenses… your not going to do the same set amount of damage everytime LOL… Back in Gen 5 people used to have 252 evs on to all their stats, but Bank won’t let a Pokemon pass through if it has more than 510 EV’s! You just see a shiny and get paranoid. A palate swap does not effect a battle.

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      • The person I was referring to in that comment had hacked Pokemon. I know that all Pokemon have different defense stats. But for me to use super effective moves via a Mega Pokemon with perfect IVs in Attack and Special attack (Also maxed out EV for Special attack) and to only do 50 hp on a Pokemon with over 230 is beyond me.
        P.S. The person who I fought was a friend of mine and did tell me they were hacking. I have seen others on battle spot with illegal moves and abilities, how do they not get filtered?

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  23. I could care less for hacked Pokemon, to be honest. I don’t hack Pokemon myself and was never into it, but if ya wanna hack, that’s your problem buddy. 😛

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  25. I have a pokegen HA feraligatr, but that’s it. Just going to sit in my PC lol. At the end of the day people are still going to carry on hacking, but things would be a whole lot easier if Nintendo just released the abilities.

    Reply

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